Romulus Folio Gallery Shortlisted for 2026 City of Port Phillip Design and Development Awards
Romulus Folio Gallery is proud to announce that the gallery has been shortlisted in the Small Scale category of the 2026 City of Port Phillip Design and Development Awards, presented as part of Melbourne Design Week.
The awards recognise projects that contribute meaningfully to the architectural, cultural, and social fabric of the City of Port Phillip through excellence in design, spatial thinking, and public experience. The shortlisted project explores the transformation of The Gladstone lobby in South Melbourne into an artist-led gallery and open studio operating across fourteen months of continuous cultural programming.
Embedded directly within a residential environment, Romulus Folio Gallery reimagined the shared public space as a living cultural environment integrating contemporary art, design, architecture, exhibitions, workshops, and community engagement into everyday life.
Photo by Scott Ross
Developed and directed by Angelina Mirabito, PhD, and Gallery Manager Scott Ross, the project explored how artistic and spatial interventions can shape emotional atmosphere, public interaction, and the experience of shared environments within rapidly evolving urban precincts such as Fishermans Bend. Through ongoing exhibitions, site-responsive installations, artist talks, workshops, and evolving spatial configurations, the gallery transformed the experience of the lobby environment into a continuously changing cultural destination.
Across fourteen months, residents and visitors encountered artistic practice as part of the everyday rhythms of movement, gathering, conversation, and lived experience within the building itself and as a local destination. Exhibitions shifted month to month, installations responded directly to the architecture of the site, and the environment continually evolved through changing artworks, sculptural furniture, lighting conditions, workshops, and community participation.
The project examined the intersection of painting, interiors, architecture, emotional atmosphere, and cultural infrastructure, exploring how creative practice can contribute to the identity and social experience of emerging residential developments.
The announcement coincides with Architecture of Emotion, a solo exhibition by Angelina Mirabito currently presented at Romulus Folio Gallery and concluding on 28 May 2026.
The exhibition presents a major body of large-scale archival mixed media paintings exploring emotional atmosphere, spatial psychology, texture, light, and perception through layered material surfaces and luminescent reflective pigments. Integrated throughout the installation are sculptural furniture works by Mark Alexander, extending the dialogue between painting, object, architecture, and space.
As Romulus Folio Gallery approaches the conclusion of its current program at The Gladstone, visitors are warmly invited to experience the exhibition and gallery environment before the deinstallation phase between 1–25 June 2026.
Opening Night
Friday 22 May 2026
5–7pm
Exhibition Dates
6–28 May 2026
Location
Romulus Folio Gallery
The Gladstone
55 Gladstone Street
South Melbourne
Winners of the 2026 City of Port Phillip Design and Development Awards will be announced on Thursday 21 May 2026 at St Kilda Town Hall.